Kiwi County Tour: County Championship #10
Quiet times on the Kiwi County Tour bus as Matt Henry and Jeetan Patel continue their dominance, leading the way for Jeet Raval and now Matt Quinn who has made a glorious return. The beauty of the KCT is that while we only have three lads in County whites, both Henry and Lord Jeetz are among the best bowlers in Division Two, if not all of County cricket and such a ratio of awesomeness reflects Aotearoa's cricketing abilities.
Jeet Raval - Yorkshire vs Lancashire
We start with the freshie, Jeet Raval who hasn't quite settled into County cricket for Yorkshire as he would have hoped. Raval put up scores of 8 and 10 in Yorkshire's win over Lancashire, they won by 95 runs and I'll save you the quick run down of how the game played out because all you need to know is that Raval's scores, or lack thereof didn't have any impact on the result for Yorkshire.
Raval now has scores of 15, 8 and 10 in three innings in two game for Yorkshire. If we compare that to the bloke Raval replaced, Kane Williamson, the difference in class is blatant as Williamson also played two games before leaving and had scores of 87, 61, 18 and 51. The joy in this is that Raval is getting valuable County cricket experience, the standard dose of battling in English conditions and the abundance of cricket played. Williamson has a long history in County cricket, so he knows what it's all about and can combine his world-class batsmanship with his knowledge of County cricket. Raval on the other hand is at the start of his journey and needs time to suss it all out.
Matt Quinn - Essex vs Nottinghamshire
It’s been a hot minute since we have seen Matt Quinn on the KCT bus for Essex and after taking 8w in two Essex 2nd XI games, Quinn got the call up to the big show. Essex defeated Notts by 8 wickets, with Quinn taking 3w in 19 overs @ 1.94rpo to help dismiss Notts for 177 in their first innings.
Essex then reached 233 all out, with Quinn not out on 1 (off 16 balls with a 6.25sr!) batting #11. Despite another huge shift of 17 overs, Quinn couldn't take a second innings wicket and conceded 4.05rpo as Notts made their way to 337 all out to set Essex a target of 282. A couple top order centuries sealed the win for Essex, with Quinn not required to bat.
Matt Henry - Kent vs Middlesex
After his third 10-wicket game, Henry was again in the wickets as Kent defeated Middlesex by 3 wickets. Henry took 1w @ 4.20rpo in 10 overs in the first innings, he didn't need to do more than that thanks to his fellow Kent bowlers who had Middlesex all out for 161.
Kent were then dismissed for 192 and Henry got a 4-ball duck, which only caused Henry to go Super Saiyan and take 4w @ 2.18rpo in dismissing Middlesex for 186. Henry took the key wicket of Middlesex captain Dawid Malan and then bolstered his wicket tally with a trio of lower order wickets in his 18.2 overs. Conceding 4.20rpo in the first innings, Henry was only needed for 10 overs while the wicket-taking Kent bowlers bowled 12 overs. In the second innings though, Henry's 18 overs saw him only conceded 2.18rpo and this change in form had Henry doing the bulk of the work as no other Kent bowler had more than 16 overs in the second dig.
Chasing 156 to win, Henry was sent up the order as night-watchman to bat #3 and he couldn't take his opportunity as he was out for 1 (off 2 balls). Kent however, they got the job done, scoring at 3.56rpo to chase down their target in 44 overs.
Henry now has 66w in 9 games/18inns @ 14.96avg/2.99rpo. The six bowlers below Henry in the Div Two wicket-taking rankings have all played at least 10 games (2x10, 2x11, 2x12) and the next-best bowler who has played just 9 games, has taken 45w. Another way to slice up Henry's pie of wicket-taking mayhem; of the seven bowlers who have taken 50+ wickets in Div Two, Henry has bowled the fewest overs.
Jeetan Patel - Warwickshire vs Leicestershire
One of those bowlers with 50+ wickets is Lord Jeetz, who was only required to bowl himself as skipper in the second innings but he still chimed in with wickets. Warwickshire's seamers rolled Leicestershire for 100 and the Bears then responded with 400/9dec as Jeetz hit a cheeky 9* (100sr) at #11.
Warwickshire's second innings with the ball saw Jeetz bowl 20 overs (next best was 15 overs) and take 4w @ 3.35rpo. This included a Leicestershire opener who was set on 29, from 84 balls and Jeetz had him lbw before tearing through the middle order with a couple more wickets to have Leicestershire all out for 196; a win by an innings and 104 for Warwickshire.
Jeetz has 53 wickets and to further highlight Henry's dominance, Jeetz has his 53 wickets in 12 games while Henry's got 66w in 9 games. Jeetz is doing bloody great though with an average of 21.03/2.87rpo and he has also passed the magical 50w mark. In the last seven County seasons, Jeetz has taken 50+ wickets in six of them and this season has seen Jeetz bounce back from his worst County season during this period in which he took just 41w.
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Peace and love 27.